Run With Me
by BlindingFirefly
Summary: Based on Goo Goo Dolls Song Stay With Me. Ginny's POV down through some of the incidents in the books...what was she thinking? Please review!


Disclaimer: I don't own anything of JKR's. Slavery's illegal, except for house elves, of course. :)

Note: I had originally decided to put this with my other Goo Goo Dolls story, Better Days, but now I think I'm going to let it stand all by itself, since Better Days proved to be AU. I plead by all that is holy, please, please, please hit that lovely review button down there! It makes me so happy, and I'll give anybody who reviews a cookie! Now how can you resist? Any flames will be given to…shoot, I can't say Nagini anymore. Umm… they'll go to feed Buckbeak! And take care; flames don't suit his tummy very well. You might get scratched like our dear retch friend, Malfoy.

Sorry that this kind of jumps years a lot. Had to make it fit the lyrics! Enjoy!

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Ginny Weasley looked around her at the bustling streets of London as she walked with her mum towards Kings Cross Station to drop off her brothers. All of them would now be gone from the house, going to Hogwarts. Oh, how she wished that she could join them! She loved her mum and dad, but it was going to be so boring with only her in the previously stuffed house. At least getting to see London was exciting. There were so many people, going to who knows where with all sorts of important errands!

They were entering the cavernous train station now, and walking towards the platform that held the entrance to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Ginny always enjoyed getting to go through the barrier with her brothers. She was secretly practicing for the day when she got to truly go through the barrier as a Hogwarts student. For just a minute, at least, she could pretend that she was eleven and able to be at the best place in the world.

But just as her heart was full of anticipation and wistfulness for next year, the bottom on Ginny's world fell out from under her. There before the barrier and looking at her mum with hopeful eyes was a boy with messy black hair, glasses, and green eyes. He looked worried and frightened, and Ginny felt her heart going out to him. It was in more ways than one, though, that she lost her heart that day. Against the usual rules of order and reality, a ten year old girl fell in love with a complete stranger. A complete stranger who just happened to be Harry Potter. A complete stranger that she could never truly have until his job was done.

_These streets  
Turn me inside out  
Everything shines  
But leaves me empty still  
_

Ginny gazed at Number 12, Grimmauld Place with intense dislike. This was to be their home for the summer? Further, this was to be the house that Harry Potter was going to live in someday, with his godfather, Sirius? What a disgusting, dark, and depressing place it was, to be sure! Grimly, Ginny stalked into the house, determined to do everything she could to make it a good place for Harry to live in. Her mother seemed to think a Scouring Charm would work wonders. Privately, Ginny thought a match and a swift kick would do more good. But that wasn't her call.

Her forehead wrinkled as she remembered the fact that Harry thought she was taken. How infuriating it was, having to go out with boys she didn't give a hang for! She'd even done some snogging…but it was relatively like snogging her Auntie Muriel. Not exactly her idea of fun. Still, it helped to pretend that it was Harry she was snogging, and she never stopped dreaming that one day, it would be for real.

_And I'll burn this lonely house down  
If you run with me  
If you run with me _

_I'll stay with you  
The walls will fall before we do  
Take my hand now  
We'll run forever  
I can feel the storm inside you  
I'll stay with you _

Dean turned around and offered Ginny his hand so that he could help her out of the portrait hole. "Dean, _really_," she said disgustedly. "I think I'm capable of climbing out of a hole by myself, thanks so much."

Grinning an idiotic smile, Dean send, "Aw, Ginny, I just wanted to help, that's all. Don't be mad!" He leaned in, and whispered, "Besides, it's an excuse to hold your hand…"

Ginny smiled a smile that was about as strong as limp spaghetti in return, and walked with Dean down the corridor. While helping her out of the portrait hole was apparently an excuse to hold her hand, protesting Dean's help was Ginny's excuse to keep from touching him as little as possible. Every time they touched, it felt like a betrayal to Harry.

How asinine, having to take a boy that she didn't give two sickles for, in order to one day get the boy worth more than a million galleons? It was actually rather pathetic, having to use this boy in order to pretend that it was Harry's hand helping hers, Harry's lips upon her own. Her face burned as she remembered the day not so long ago that Ron had caught her and Dean snogging in a corridor. He had been walking with Harry, no less! It had been the epitome of humiliation, and definitely NOT how Ginny had wanted to be caught. All she could do was defend her actions and hopefully look like more than a pathetic kid playing grown-up games.

Still….Harry had had a very strange look on his face. Could it be that he had at last seen Ginny as something more than a little kid that he always had to save?

Oh, she remembered her first year, Harry's second. When he had chased her all the way down into the Chamber of Secrets, and pretty much brought her back to life. When she had woken up and seen Harry's face close to hers, it had been like waking up in heaven. They had been alone then, for the first time. He was the one with her, and the only one she really wanted. But while it had been like heaven, it was also a hell, because she knew that it couldn't last. Soon they would have to poke their heads out of that horrible Chamber and return to the real world, where he was Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived and she was Ginny Weasley, Ron's kid sister who didn't know any better than to get herself possessed by Voldemort. How despicable, to be held in the clutches of the man that wanted Harry's life. She had taken numerous showers after she had found out about Riddle's hold on her in an attempt to cleanse the foul influence away. No amount of purification could clean Riddle's memory away from her brain, though. So Ginny just remembered waking up with Harry's eyes on her and her alone, and waited for the day that they could truly be each other's strength.

_  
Fooled by my own desires  
I twist my fate  
Just to feel you  
But you, turn me toward the light  
And you're one with me  
Will you run with me? _

Standing in a corner of the Room of Requirement, Ginny stared as Cho Chang flirted shamelessly with her Harry. First Cho had gone after Cedric, and now that he was barely gone, she was after Harry as well! It was shameful, positively shameful…

Most of the time Ginny felt very confident of her looks and abilities, but beside Cho Chang, she mysteriously lost that ability to see the good in herself. Ginny could sense Harry's inner turmoil, his own grief and sorrow over Cedric's death. It was like a hurricane that threatened to drown his soul. Ginny worried that Cho's presence would continually remind Harry of the friend he had lost.

Why couldn't Cho just disappear? She was standing in front of Ginny's dearest ambitions, everything that she had hoped and dreamed of for five years. Still…Ginny was starting to realize that maybe everything she had dreamed of wouldn't happen. Maybe Harry would love…someone else. The mere thought cut her to her core, but it was something that she just had to think about. She was no stalker. She wasn't going to stand in the way of Harry's happiness if he truly wanted to be with someone else, and loved someone else. She'd always viewed Harry as the impossible dream, anyway. But if Harry ever looked at her and saw her for what she truly was, she promised herself that she'd do everything in her power to make him so happy that he'd never leave. Most importantly, she'd never leave him._  
_

_I'll stay with you  
The walls will fall before we do  
Take my hand now  
We'll run forever  
I can feel the storm inside you  
I'll stay with you  
_

Harry came timidly into the common room after another detention with Snape. He had no clue as to whether Gryffindor had won the Quidditch final or not…

Ginny grinned when she saw his elated face, when he realized that they had won. Suddenly, her heart seemed to stop, and everything seemed to slow down, as if an Impediment Jinx had been placed over the whole castle. Now was the time. Now was the moment, or she'd never get up the courage again.

She took first one step, then another, then another. A look of grim determination was on her face. If he refused her now, she was going to give up the whole thing. She would have to try and learn to live without Harry, learn to love someone else. Everything that she had dreamed of for six years depended on this moment.

She saw Harry's eyes skimming the room, then his emerald eyes connected with hers. For a moment, she thought that he was going to turn away. And then it happened:

He held open his arms and waited for her.

Time sped up again, and Ginny felt herself flying into Harry's arms. It felt as if all of her brothers' fireworks were exploding in the air around her as Harry's lips fell on hers. It was better than she had ever imagined, and suddenly she was grateful for all of that snogging practice with Michael Corner and Dean Thomas. Maybe Harry wouldn't think that she was such a little girl now.

Reluctantly, they pulled away from each other, and Ginny saw in Harry's eyes all of the love that she had ever dreamed of. She had offered herself, and he had accepted. It couldn't be any sweeter than that.

_Now come in from this storm  
I taste you sweet and warm  
Take what you need  
Take what you need  
From me.  
_

Ginny stood inside the Great Hall, looking at all of the bodies, all of the shattered lives. Her very being ached for George, ached for that happy time when her family had been well and whole, and the world wasn't so messed up.

Still, as much as the pain went coursing through her, as much as she just wanted to curl up in a corner somewhere and weep, she knew that deep down, all of this was a good thing. Voldemort would never murder another member of her family, never again would they live in fear. This past year had been hell…First had come the hardship of having to part with Harry and her brother, not having a clue if or when she'd see them again. Then the rebellion had begun at Hogwarts, was life was intolerable due to Snape and his cronies. The punishment that they'd had to endure…Ginny shuddered, remember the Cruciatus Curse practice sessions. She'd been punished by that a few times, and didn't care to repeat the experience.

For all that, Ginny had missed leading the rebellion when her parents had yanked her out of Hogwarts and hidden her away. Just sitting around and thinking about how Ron had deserted her boyfriend was enough to drive a girl insane with worry and frustration. Sometimes she stood up, determined to get out of the house, to MAKE herself Apparate and join her friends, either at Hogwarts or on whatever Harry's quest was. When her DA galleon had showed its message, she had nearly wept with joy.

As she looked at her sobbing mother and understood now what the war had cost them all, Ginny couldn't help but be a little thankful. For better or for worse, the world was safe now. Harry had saved them all; he'd reintroduced them to a world where they could live without fear. And now, finally, they could all find a measure of contentment in the homes and families that now needed to be rebuilt.

_Wake up this world  
Wake up tonight  
And run with me  
Run to me now  
_

On the day of Harry and Ginny's wedding, Ginny stood in her room at the Burrow, staring at herself in the mirror. The soft white dress that her mother had so carefully sewn fit to perfection, with its empire waist and flowing skirt. An ethereal veil was placed on top of her red hair, its flame subdued somewhat by the whiteness of her outfit.

At a soft knock at the door, Ginny called softly, "Come in!" Hermione Weasley entered quietly. She was dressed in a gown of pale blue and carrying blush pink roses; the perfect outfit for the women who was acting as matron-of-honor. She and Ron had been married the year before. Ginny and Harry had waited an extra year, even though it was hard, so that Ginny would be eighteen when they married. Even though she had been "legal" for a year by wizard standards, they wanted everything to be perfectly legal and aboveboard for the rest of the world.

Ginny was a young bride, but Hermione thought that she had never seen a more relaxed one. "Ginny…you look so happy! I was all prepared to come in here and perform a Relaxing Charm or something, but you don't look worried at all!"

"I have no reason to be, 'Mione. I've loved Harry ever since I was ten years old, you know that. This is just the next step…now we'll never be separated again. It's been a long road, but the best is yet to come. We'll have all the years of our lives to be together, without the shadow of Voldemort to make us unhappy. We're truly fortunate."

A long road, yes, but the short path down the aisle into Harry's waiting arms seemed the longest yet. But once she got there, Ginny finally had peace. She wouldn't have any trouble promising to stay with Harry for better or worse, because she'd already made that vow once before, and she'd never broken it.

_I'll stay with you  
The walls will fall before we do  
Take my hand now  
We'll run forever  
I can feel the storm inside you  
I'll stay with you_


End file.
